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Help Them Help You
1 Jun, 2009 By: Lloyd Merritt Smigel Pest Management Professional
There's been a disturbing trend in the industry over the last three decades. Many pest management professionals (PMPs) have done a poor job of providing quality training for new managers, sales representatives and, especially, supervisors.
Many supervisors have, themselves, complained about their own lack of training.
Here's what generally happens: An owner will promote a good service representative to a supervisor and expect that person to magically gain all the knowledge to do the job instantaneously.
What's worse is that the new supervisor is now responsible for an invisible job description that seems to keep growing as they try to keep their heads above water. The experience is akin to juggling while dodging bullets.
A job description is a must. It does just what it says it does: it describes, in detail, the duties and expectations of the job. Many smaller companies do not have a job description for the position of supervisor.
Attaining a job description is the first step to proper training. The next step, after explaining what the supervisor is responsible for, is to have a supervisor's manual that explains how the job should be done.
If you don't have this in your training process, how is the new supervisor supposed to learn? This should address your company's policies and protocols on how to service all of its customers (hotels, homes, hospitals, etc.).
Without a good service structure, your sales department and office will go nuts.
In small companies, the owner/manager is used to telling someone what to do, how to do it — the owner/manager is the company's training department. As your business grows, you'll quickly learn you can't do everything — this is a tough change of culture to go through.
Add the hiring and interviewing processes — and turnover — to this, and you're now in the land of the management carousel, where you go round and round, faster and faster without moving forward.
Supervisors should hire their own people. But they'll need proper training and tools to do so. The supervisor position is a tough one — and he or she needs all of the training and support to help them help the company.
When you promote a technician to supervisor, they're no longer a route person and yet, they're not the manager either. Their job is to coordinate those above and below them (in title only).
Supervisors are responsible for chemical distribution, chemical controls and safety, among other duties. As an owner, you must see to it that the supervisor understands how to do all those items listed.
The supervisor will also need to coordinate with the sales department and office — a tough task to learn.
How well the heads of sales, office and service work together can be the difference between success and failure.
The common war is sales vs. service vs. office. It takes organization, delegation and drive to get this done. It's not an overnight change.
What daily, weekly or monthly reports should supervisors be looking at and why? Who will train supervisors on all those reports? Often, new supervisors (and sometimes established supervisors) are not aware of tracking reports and/or what they mean. By omitting these reports from the training process, your company is heading for danger.
Additionally, there needs to be a clear chain of command. If this isn't established and respected by everyone, the repercussions are difficult to control.
You can reach Smigel, a 30-year industry veteran, partner in two pest management firms and former national training director for Truly Nolen, at becky@lloyd-smigel.com.
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